I really hate this town. And my hatred has grown more intense as each
year has gone by. If you don't believe me ask Eric Licht, the president
of Coalitions For America, the sister organization to the Free Congress
Foundation. Eric has known me since 1973 and has worked for me for more
than 20 years. He keeps an index of my feelings about Washington.

When I first came here for the 90th Congress to work in the Senate there
was some decency left. There was a code of honor in the Congress which
only people on the fringe broke. Members of Congress by and large kept
their word. If you didn't, that soon became known and you were ostracized.
It is why Sen. Chuck Percy (R-IL) despite representing an important state,
despite having wealth and favorable media, never went anywhere in the
Senate. He didn't keep his word and his colleagues knew it.

In those days, when there was a leadership vote, Senators knew within
one vote how it would turn out, because Senators told the whips how they
would vote, and they kept their word. Today the margin is five votes.
In the House of Representatives, it was possible to come within three
to five votes in head counting in a leadership race. Now you are blessed
if it is 10 to 15 votes.

What really has me corked off is a recent story in Roll Call, the newspaper
of Capitol Hill. It seems that the National Republican Congressional Committee
(NRCC) thinks it has a first class candidate against Representative Ralph
Hall, Democrat of Texas. He is Kevin Eltife, the Mayor of Tyler. Hall
has had some Republicans added to his district on account of reapportionment
and so he appears to be more vulnerable than in the past.

Hall

Lest I be guilty of less than full disclosure, Rep. Hall has served on
the Free Congress Board since 1985 and has been chairman for the past
several years, succeeding Jeff Coors who served as chairman for 15 years
and who remains on the Free Congress board to this day.

Hall is a true conservative. He has a better voting record than half
the Republicans. What has me so upset is that time and time again Hall
has bailed out the Republican leadership on close votes. I know. Countless
times I've been asked to talk to Congressman Hall about this vote or that.
Moreover I know of countless other times when the GOP leadership has had
to go to Hall to try to line up the last few votes for razor-thin victories.

Do you have any idea how many close victories the House leadership has
delivered this Congress? Hall has been on the right side of every single
question. He also was one of a handful of Democrats to vote for the impeachment
of President Bill Clinton.

So the party which depends on Hall to win on its legislative agenda is
the party which will raise big money to defeat Hall in order to stay in
power. That Hall is a real American who never lets the president down,
who was active with Democrats for Bush in 2000, who twists arms to help
the leadership get a vote here and there, means nothing to the Republicans.

There are many Republican Members who vote against the leadership again
and again. They even embarrass the GOP leadership with things like discharge
petitions on campaign finance reform. Many of these liberal Republicans
appear opposite the Speaker and Majority Leader and Majority Whip on television
talk shows, so it appears that the Republican Party is deeply divided.
Actually, it is only a small minority taking the liberal position.

Let's face it, the reason Hall's vote is needed in the first place is
precisely because of these liberal GOP defections. So now these liberals
are to be completely forgiven because after all they vote right for Speaker.

But Hall, who votes with the GOP leadership 95 per cent of the time when
his vote is really needed, he can be tossed in the political ash heap
because he casts the wrong vote for Speaker. Just remember, Hall was the
one Democrat who refused to vote for Tip O'Neill when Tip was elected
Speaker for the last time.

I don't speak for the Congressman but if, at the beginning of the 108th
Congress, the speakership comes down to Hall and a couple of others, I
would not be surprised to see Ralph Hall keeping Denny Hastert in power
one way or another. Whether he would switch parties at that point or whether
he would abstain on the first ballot I don't know for sure. I just know
that in a razor-thin contest Hall could be counted on to do the right
thing-unless he is so ticked at the way the Republicans dumped on him
in the campaign he changes his mind. Still I don't see that happening.

Now if the Democrats win in a landslide (which right now looks like a
good possibility) there would be no point to Hall switching parties. And
in that case the GOP Minority Leader will be very grateful for any votes
Hall can deliver for the president's program.

The late Senator Gordon Allott, my mentor, early on pointed to this conservative
or even moderate Democrat and told me that Allott and that Democrat had
a gentlemen's understanding that they would not campaign against each
other. In one case Allott even told the GOP Senatorial Campaign Committee
that he did not think it a good idea to pour GOP dollars against one particular
incumbent, since he had been so helpful to President Richard Nixon.

That is what should be happening now. Instead this party wants to kill
off the one fellow who consistently delivers for them. If they do so they
may well stay in power but will be incapable of delivering those close
votes. On the other hand, I wouldn't ever count out Hall. He is very beloved
in his district and delivers for them. Plus Ralph Hall is one of the funniest
people in politics today. He knows how to tell a good story. That forgotten
art is not likely to be unappreciated in Rockwall, Tyler and everywhere
in between.